Hide Your Home Theater Gear: DIY Weekend Tech Project

Your TV is slim, but your Home Theater gear is bulky. Here's how to hide the clutter.

The flat-panel television has changed our expectations of what a home theater looks like. What once dominated a room is now as unobtrusive as a painting on your wall, yet most home theaters still require an awkward stack of metal boxes (receiver, DVD player, game system, set-top tuner). When I moved my home theater into the den of my new home, I decided to keep the machinery to a minimum in the den and exile my components to a closet. But I still wanted complete control from the couch.

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Professional installers charge a mint for this sort of work, and you often end up having to use special controllers that don't maintain the functionality of the remotes that shipped with your components. But I found that with a few hundred dollars' worth of simple equipment and the bravery to cut through your walls, you can accomplish the same thing yourself in a few hours.

Step 1: Racking 'Em Up

A wire rack on casters facilitates airflow and swivels for easy access to equipment.

When selecting a spot to hide your gear, pick a place with enough airflow, as tight spaces with limited ventilation can trap heat and fry sensitive circuitry. Also, you'll want a piece of furniture that lets your electronics breathe. Personally, I favor the utility of a wire rack on casters. The open framework allows for plenty of airflow, while the casters let you swivel the rack for easy access to the back.

Step 2: Hole in the Wall

Ideally, you'll want your TV and component closet to share opposite sides of an interior wall--allowing a straight shot right through. But before you pull out your saw, make a quick pass behind the television with a stud finder to ensure you're selecting a section of hollow wall. Also, avoid any areas where you know there is electrical wiring or plumbing.

The TV should cover the hole you're going to cut; but to keep things neat, try furniture hole-cover grommets (available for about $3 each from most hardware stores). Although designed to route computer cables through desks, grommets can stop drywall from crumbling and provide a finished look to a hole that might otherwise seem like the result of a wild hammer swing.

Trace an outline of the grommet on the wall, then cut on the line with a drywall saw and fit the grommet into the hole.

Step 3: Hole in the Wall

If you're feeding wire directly through the wall, drill right through the original hole to the opposing wall. Trim the new hole with a drywall knife to fit another grommet, and you now have a perfect conduit for your wires. If you're feeding wires to a more distant spot, snake the cables into your basement or attic, then use a spade bit to drill through the floor or ceiling of your closet and feed the cables through.

Step 4: Remote Routing

Once your components are in a closet, they're not in the line of sight of your infrared remote controls, so you're going to need some extra technology to carry your commands from room to room. Companies such as Niles (nilesaudio.com) make infrared sensors and repeaters that can move signals around the house (expect to spend around $220 to $280 for a complete kit). Setup is relatively easy: Stick the sensor onto the wall near your television, then thread its wire through the hole in the wall to the hub in the closet. Then plug one end of each emitter cable into the output of your hub and stick the other ends onto your components' front panels.

Speaker Wiring

Now that your AV receiver is in the closet, you need to get speaker wire back into your TV room. This can require a hefty spool of speaker cable (expect to use around 100 to 200 ft. for five speakers). Front and center channels can go through the wall to either side of your television. For rear speakers, I suggest drilling through to your attic or basement. (I poked a hole in the floor behind my couch and threaded the wire for both rear speakers through--the couch hid the rest of the wire.) Obviously, no one solution works for every space, but the result is as close to feng-shui harmony as AV gear gets.